Sometimes, you just have a lot of knitting to do.  Maybe it’s Christmas, you have several birthdays back to back, or you decided to do a few projects for a little extra change.  Whatever the reason, creating a knitting schedule can go a long way to making your work easier.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!  In this case, a wee bit of time spent planning out your knitting schedule can save you huge amounts of time and (possible) frustrations later.

I’m going to walk you through how I decide what to make, and for whom, when I’m under the gun.  I’m running a little behind with my Christmas knitting so I’ll show you what I do using my current Christmas list.  This may look time consuming but, trust me, it’s really not and it saves tons of time down the road!  So grab a notebook and a pencil and let’s get to work!

Make The Naughty And Nice List

Okay, first thing we’re going to do is make a list of everyone that we want to make a gift for.  A beginner mistake is wanting to give a knit gift to EVERYONE that they know.  That’s really sweet and if you have the time and yarn, be my guest!  But the sad truth is that not everyone wants a knit gift.  Crazy, I know.  Give your list of gift recipients an honest look and cross off anyone that you know wouldn’t appreciate a knit item. 

Now that you’ve got your baseline, do a quick once over and mark down anyone you know that does want a knit gift.  These are the people that you know would have hurt feelings if they didn’t get something handcrafted under the tree.  These wonderful people should be your top priority when the yarn hits the needles.

Keep in mind that no one likes a half hearted gift.  If you know you won’t be able to finish the project to your standards in time, you may want to post pone giving that item until it is complete.  I’ve been known to surprise people on Tax Day with an elaborately wrapped gift and I KNOW those people will never forget the day they were given a present on such a lousy day.

Pick Your Projects

Next we’re going to pick our projects.  If you’re really stressed for time, I would pick no more than three patterns.  As painful as it may be, now is not the time for stunning colorwork, tons of cables, or complicated lace patterns!  We’re going for efficiency here.  When selecting a project, pick something that:

If you’re going to have more than one pattern, if possible, select things with two different needle sizes.  This will help minimize your chance of getting a hand cramp from holding the same size needles for too long.

It’s also ideal if you can have at least one TV project and one travel project.  This vastly increases your available knit time.  Just make sure you don’t have the project out in the open when you’re around your gift recipient!

Patterns I’ve Selected

These are the projects that I’ve decided on:

This cowl uses large needles (size 19) and super bulky yarn so you know it’s going to fly off the needles.  The entire project is comprised of stockinette or garter stitch which makes for excellent TV knitting.  With all of the Christmas movies I’ll be watching this month, I can guarantee I’ll have ample time to work on this pattern.

This hat uses worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles.  I know that, once I’m in the groove, I can really make my size 8 dpns move.  This hat is small and simple enough for me to knit while sitting in a car or while watching TV and it’s very versatile item.  Who doesn’t need a ribbed hat?  

Figure Out Who Likes What

Now we’re going to figure out who has similar taste in gifts.  For my list, I know that most of the women would like a chunky, soft cowl.  Everyone else would love a hat.  (It’s getting COLD over here and you can never have too many hats!)  Your list is going to look a lot different than mine; you know your loved ones best!  I decided that everyone that would like a cowl is getting a cowl and everyone else will be getting a hat.

This is what my list looks like.  We now have a solid plan for who is getting what.

Pick Your Yarn

Now we do the fun part: picking out our yarns!  If you need to go buy yarn, try to stick to one place so you only have one order/store to manage.  I’m going with Knit Picks for this example but you could just as easily use any LYS or “Big Box” craft store.  The whole point is that you have enough variety to make each of your individual projects match your recipient as well as possible.

To get a perfect gauge every time, stick with one yarn line per project.  Every yarn is slightly different and these differences can easily throw off your gauge.  This will be greatly minimized if you stick to just one yarn line and play with the colors instead.  (We can try all of the unique yarns when we’re not in a rush!)

When selecting colors, try to keep things varied to make all of your gifts feel more personalized.  For example, just because you have several Carolina Panther fans in your family doesn’t mean everyone should get the exact same “Carolina Blue” hat.  Will they all love it?  Obviously.  Will it feel personalized and made just for them?  Not so much.

Yarns I Picked

Remember: colorful yarn is your friend!  Tonals, handpainted, and striped yarns are a great choice when you’ve got a deadline.  They’re different enough to make everyone feel like their gift is truly customized but they can be from the same yarn line to help you keep your gauge and your sanity.  Win win!

When we’re done picking out our yarn, we’re going to review the list and put the gift recipients in knitting order. For me, I start with 1) who I know wants a knit gift most and 2) items that will need to be shipped. For example, I know that out of this group, Brother #2 and Friend #2 want a knit present the most. Brother #2 won’t be home for Christmas so he get’s top knitting priority, followed by Friend #2. Their hats happen to be the most time consuming since they both will use two colors. After that, the rest of the hats are single color and should go very quickly.

Next we’re going to do the exact same thing with our other pattern.  Since my patterns have different needle sizes, I’m keeping separate lists of knitting priority/order.  That way, whether I finish a hat or a cowl, I know exactly what to cast on next.

The Final Knitting Schedule

We just rewrite everything in numerical order and ta-da!!  We now have a list of exactly what we’re going to make, in what color yarn, for whom, and in the exact order.  Now chop chop!  Those gifts aren’t going to knit themselves!

What About You?

Do you have any tricks for planning out your knitting schedule?  Let us know in the comment section down below!